Mixed Media Exploration and Elements of Art Review!

Recently, when I was working on THIS line design lesson...

Where I shared how to make black glue without actually making black glue...quick video here:

It got me thinking. If you can make black glue that way, then couldn't you do the same with any water-based marker on white paper? 

The answer, YEP! You can! And that's how this lesson came to be!

For this project, which I envision would be perfect for 5th grade and up, I started with a 12" square of paper, water-based markers and Elmer's Glue All. Check out the full lesson here:

Once the glue is dry, I used my paper cutter to cut the papers into 4 6" squares. Then I decided to do a mixed media exploration on each!

To alter this lesson, you could always NOT cut the paper and just pick one of the mixed meda methods to do on the entire paper. Just a thought. I did find exploring all of these really fun but I know that would take a several art class days...so I'll leave that up to you!

For the first one, I just used a permanent marker, a cup of water and a paintbrush. I used my Line Design sheet and a permanent marker for the first step. Then I added water to the marker lines to create a blurred line effect with a little bit of a tint of color.

For the next square, I used chalk. Whenever I use chalk in my art room, I always use a color wheel. I created this free color wheel download for you to use, you can access it here!

If you have hesistated to use chalk pastels in  your art room in the past, don't sweat it! I created a whole video and blog post of all of my chalk Tips and Tricks and you can see it here!

I also just recently posted a lesson for 2nd grade and up using chalk and line...and you can check that out here!

Okay, back to the lesson at hand! I LOVE chalk and my students do too. I really enjoyed creating this little chalk square study.

BUT THIS ONE...

Was even more fun! For this, students will use bright and light color oil pastel and saturate their paper in color. THEN...

Using a combination of black paint (I used acrylic but tempera would work) and a squirt of dish soap (I only had Dr. Bronner's on hand but Dawn or any other would work!) blended together well, paint over the areas you wish to do scratch art on.

Allow that to dry COMPLETELY before using a skewer to remove the paint and create line designs. 

I really recommend adding the dish soap. What it does is help the paint scrap off evenly and not in chips. I've tried it without dish soap before and...it just didn't work as well (chips. We had chips).

So fun, right?

And for the final method, we explore wet-on-wet with watercolor.

Now, when it comes to display, I laid my pieces back out like a puzzle. But these could be displayed individually, on in a vertical or horizontal manner...so many options! I'm so stoked about this lesson. I don't often do lessons for upper grades because I never taught beyond 4th. I do think this could be done with fourth (maybe after Christmas, when they are officially fourth graders) and definitely beyond. 

By the way, if you are looking for books, downloads and resources for all things art teacherin', I have a library of them! You can see them all here!

Line Designs with Chalk and Glue!

At this point, I feel like I'm spamming my own blog with LINE lessons! Just for a recap, I'll add links to them all right here:

* Line Sculptures

* Line and Shape Paintings

* All About Me Line Portraits

I'll be sure and do a Best Line Lessons post soon but if you are looking for more ideas now, see THIS review of my fave line lessons here!

And if you are looking for all of my Larry the Line lessons, see the end of this post!

Before we dive into the lesson at hand, let me just share my LOOOOVE of lessons with black glue! Now for some of these, I didn't know about this epic time-saving hack and I MADE my own black glue with ink and Elmer's Glue All. It's a REAL DRAG, lemme tell you: the bottles clog, the ink spills, the glue leaves a permanent mess because of the ink...it's all such a pain. I will say...the end result of the black glue versus this hack is better but not so much that it's worth the hassle. 

Here's some of my very favorite black glue lessons:

* Abstract Faces Inspired by Sandra Silberzweig

* Black Glue Tigers with Chalk

* Black Glue Abstract Fish

* Stained Glass Trees

When we use chalk, this is our set up: a divided tray with warm and cool colors and black, gray and brown removed. These divider trays were donated to the art room from a hospital...so I can't tell you exactly where they are from. BUT I do love that they keep the colors separate. 

We also use a tissue for cleaning our finger AND a laminated color wheel.

I always get so many questions on where I got the color wheel...I found it online YEARS ago and I couldn't tell you where. So...I made one for you! You can download it here.

And now for the lesson! Here you go:

I know art teachers tend to have a love/hate with chalk pastel (I just call it chalk)...it's messy and often the artwork smears. BUT I love the stuff. The colors are bold and bright. And if you use a color wheel and really teach the kids about analogous colors, I think you'll find it fun to teach. I use that same color wheel method you saw in the video for every chalk lesson.

For my VERY favorite chalk lessons and more of my tips and tricks, visit here!

When studenst are done with their chalk lessons, I will often spray their work with an aerosol hairspray like Aqua Net from the dollar store. It will dull the work a pinch and can leave little speckles of spray but...it works pretty good. As long as the artwork is not man-handled much once complete, the spray works fine.

And, OF COURSE, if you don't have my book on LINE and SHAPE already, now's the time to get 'em!

You can find Larry the Line here.

And Alfred the Ape Knows his Shapes here!

How to Make a Paper Chain Larry the Line

Hey there, y'all! I'm coming to you today with a new Larry the Line lesson (I had a brain explosion recently and came up with so many lessons to go with my book Larry the Line! And I have one more to come...so stay tuned for that!).

For the other Larry the Line lessons, just tap the link: 

* Larry the Line Spiral Printout

* Larry the Line How to Draw

* Larry the Line Watercolor Lesson

This lesson serves as a perfect introduction to lines or a line review! It also can be used for sub plans too. My students LOVE making paper chains. And this one is interactive! Now they can make their own paper snake and create lines with that. Video lesson here:

This lesson does come with a free download. I used both the download and paper strips to make Larry a little longer...and to add more color to him. I decided to keep those strips of paper blank. I think it works because you really only see the strips of paper with the lines on it!

Free download here!

I love colorful copy paper so of course I had to print this on that! BUT if students love to color, you could always print on white paper! And then they could add color that way.

This project is an easy one that I think would work for kindergarten up to second grade! Again, that download is here.

Now, if you are new to the Larry the Line lore then you might not know that after reading my book to my students, I use a stuffed carnival snake. It's a lot of fun...actually a little too much fun ;) The kids LOVE Larry and I thought this would be a fun way for them to take home their very own!

Once created, students can quiz each other by forming their snake into lines and naming the lines!

And all ya need for this lesson: markers, scissors and a glue stick. I love low mess at the start of the school year!

Have fun, friends!

The Perfect Back-to-School Art Project: Getting to Know You Sculptures!

Every single year I do a paper sculpture lesson with kindergarten to kick off the school year. In fact, we do it on the very first day of art! You can see me teach that lesson to kindergarten on their first day of art right here. 

Because that lesson is always a hit, one year, I decided to level up the lesson and share it with my other grade levels, first through fourth. BUT I put a spin on it and we called it our Getting to Know You Sculptures!

Now, we start this lesson AFTER our First Days of Art Rules/Routines, which you can learn all about here:

The above post comes with several free First Day of Art downloads so you'll definitely want to check it out. 

If you are new to teaching elementary art or if you are looking to level up your classroom management game, I dive into all that AND SO MUCH MORE in my book Art Teacherin' 101!

Okay, back to the lesson at hand...

For supplies, you'll need base paper (I used 12" black or white paper) and cut strips of paper. I sprinkled in some unclaimed artwork as well as strips of neon copy paper for the sculptures. You'll also need glue as well as these two totally free downloads!

Find one here!

And the other one here!

I like to keep them in sheet protectors to keep them from getting too crusty with glue.

Now, if you have never done a paper sculpture with students, don't you worry! I've got a couple videos that will walk you through the process. Start here:

And here's a video I created of this very lesson when I was going to be out for a couple of days:

The artists had a blast creating these! The only problem...storage! We had these piled EVERYWHERE. BUT they only had to make it to Open House...and then we hung them all up for display!

OF COURSE these als make for the perfect LINE review! Which is where you can use my book Larry the Line!

What I loved most was that when we displayed these at Open House, they were interactive. Meaning family and friends used a decoder sheet to "read" about the artist! That was so fun to see!

Just wanted to share this low-mess/low-stress back to school lesson that is always a hit. Happy BTS season!

Let's Draw and Make Larry the Line!

(Adding this here before I forget...Larry the Line downloads can be found here!)

Hi, friends!

The other day, I shared a spiral Larry the Line download (check it out here) and it got me thinking. I've had a lot of requests of How to Draw Larry the Line tutorials in the past and I thought I would combine that idea with a follow up to the spiral snake download. So...here we go! 

A How to Draw and Make Larry the Line!

I'm here for scale to show ya just how big you can make these!

In the video, I'll walk you and your artists through how to draw their very own Larry the Line, how to create their snake as well as do a line review. To check out the full video, it's here:

In this video, I share how you can make your Larry the size of a messy mat or 18" X 24", 12" X 18" OR 9" X 12". It's up to you and the supplies you have available!

For supplies:

* Large Larry: tagboard (aka Messy Mats), new or used! Not sure what a Messy Mat is? Here's a short clip! And here's a link to those mats as well as my very favorite art supplies. 

* For tagboard, I'd recommend using an ink-filled bingo dauber!

* Tempera paint! Need some tips and tricks on working with kids and tempera paint? Here ya go! 

Planning to create a smaller Larry? Then you can simply use markers to draw! 

Of course, this TOTALLY FREE download may be a fun warmup for artists!

And if you don't have a copy of my book, Larry the Line, you can find it here!

And stay tuned, I've got another couple of Larry-themed lessons coming your way this week, yay!